In an unexpected move, Bethesda’s very own Todd Howard has stepped up on stage at the SpikeTV Video Game Awards and has announced The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Not only did he announce the game, but a release date, as well.

When’s it out, then? November 11, 2011. The debut trailer can be found below.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim built on new engine
by Justin McElroy on Dec 13th 2010 9:57AM

In what is perhaps the best news about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim so far, Bethesda confirmed via a tweet that the game's engine is "brand new ... and it's spectacular!"

That's meaningless info to most, but for those of us who follow games a little too closely, "brand new engine" is more significantly "not Gamebryo," the troubled, notoriously glitchy skeleton inside Bethesda products like Fallout 3 and a few other titles, including the recent Epic Mickey. Bethesda community man Nick Breckon later tweeted that the new engine was built internally by the company.

Will it still feel like a Bethesda game if faces don't occasionally turn inside out, dislodge from their bodies and fly around the room? We'll find out when Skyrim launches on Xbox 360, PC and PS3 on November 11.

Skyrim details begin to rain down from Game Informer
by Griffin McElroy on Jan 9th 2011 1:30PM

Are you excited to start throwing entire weeks of your life down the hungry gullet of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim? We assume your anticipation will ramp up significantly after reading the next issue of Game Informer -- the magazine contains an expose on a number of new features for the franchise. One such change is the leveling system, which no longer binds players to a class defined by a set of skills. Players can pick and choose from the game's 18 abilities (down from Oblivion's 21), which level up with use while simultaneously unlocking new perks with each level.

Enemies will still scale to the player's level, but using a more balanced metric, resulting in a Fallout 3-esque approach as opposed to the near-impossible Oblivion approach. Of course, foes will likely be easily bested using another of the game's new features: Dual wielding. Players can equip any item or spell to either hand, using both simultaneously in combat. Though, we'll almost certainly put a Charm spell in our left hand, and Fortify Personality in our right, because that is how we do.

For more info on the game's new features, including a weapon-crafting system and improved character creation tools, check out the upcoming issue of Game Informer.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim director Todd Howard recently revealed one of the ginormous RPG's fresh, new mechanics to Game Informer -- he also inadvertently provided us with the name of our new speed metal band. They're called "dragon shouts," and they're extremely powerful enhancements to your other combat powers which you invoke by -- you guessed it -- shouting certain sets of three words from a long forgotten Draconic language that you and few others can comprehend. It's like Esperanto! It's exactly like Esperanto.

There's plenty of info about the lore of this ability in the Game Informer article, but the takeaway is this: Players will collect these power words by slaying dragons and absorbing their power, or by finding and deciphering ancient runes hidden in the depths of the deepest dungeons. So, yeah, Bethesda has basically put Pokémon in our Elder Scrolls. We are doomed once this bad boy comes out on Eleven the Eleventh of Eleven.